Ancient Malevolence Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked supernatural thriller, launching October 2025 across premium platforms

An unnerving unearthly thriller from storyteller / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an prehistoric nightmare when unfamiliar people become pawns in a malevolent experiment. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of resistance and primeval wickedness that will revamp horror this Halloween season. Visualized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and tone-heavy story follows five figures who are stirred caught in a unreachable house under the hostile rule of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a ancient sacred-era entity. Get ready to be shaken by a immersive adventure that blends intense horror with folklore, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a enduring concept in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is redefined when the fiends no longer manifest from beyond, but rather internally. This echoes the deepest facet of the protagonists. The result is a relentless mind game where the emotions becomes a constant confrontation between purity and corruption.


In a remote terrain, five souls find themselves marooned under the fiendish presence and grasp of a haunted figure. As the protagonists becomes incapable to oppose her will, disconnected and targeted by presences unfathomable, they are pushed to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the moments without pause draws closer toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and ties break, forcing each person to question their core and the philosophy of free will itself. The stakes climb with every short lapse, delivering a nightmarish journey that fuses supernatural terror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to awaken elemental fright, an evil beyond recorded history, influencing emotional fractures, and exposing a evil that erodes the self when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was about accessing something beyond human emotion. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that transition is shocking because it is so personal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering horror lovers internationally can witness this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has gathered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, offering the tale to lovers of terror across nations.


Do not miss this gripping journey into fear. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to dive into these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For cast commentary, set experiences, and reveals from the creators, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror watershed moment: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate braids together Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

Running from last-stand terror infused with scriptural legend as well as franchise returns plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified along with intentionally scheduled year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. the big studios stabilize the year with familiar IP, in parallel streamers front-load the fall with unboxed visions as well as scriptural shivers. Across the art-house lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Directed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. Pictures bows the concluding entry inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No overstuffed canon. No franchise baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new fright release year: installments, universe starters, alongside A busy Calendar calibrated for Scares

Dek: The upcoming horror season builds from day one with a January traffic jam, following that runs through the summer months, and far into the holiday frame, mixing name recognition, untold stories, and smart calendar placement. Studios with streamers are focusing on lean spends, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that position these films into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

The genre has grown into the steady swing in studio calendars, a lane that can expand when it hits and still mitigate the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year proved to executives that disciplined-budget chillers can command the zeitgeist, the following year sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The tailwind pushed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and festival-grade titles underscored there is an opening for a variety of tones, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a schedule that shows rare alignment across companies, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a tightened focus on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and home platforms.

Buyers contend the category now serves as a wildcard on the schedule. The genre can bow on a wide range of weekends, generate a clear pitch for marketing and UGC-friendly snippets, and lead with moviegoers that arrive on advance nights and sustain through the next weekend if the film works. Emerging from a production delay era, the 2026 layout shows certainty in that equation. The year rolls out with a crowded January window, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that reaches into holiday-adjacent weekends and into November. The schedule also highlights the expanded integration of specialized labels and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and grow at the right moment.

A second macro trend is brand strategy across unified worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just mounting another chapter. They are seeking to position continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that signals a new vibe or a lead change that links a incoming chapter to a early run. At the meanwhile, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are doubling down on tactile craft, physical gags and grounded locations. That mix gives 2026 a strong blend of assurance and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount marks the early tempo with two marquee plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the front, steering it as both a baton pass and a rootsy relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture announces a heritage-honoring approach without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout anchored in brand visuals, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, somber, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an machine companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a crowded corridor, with the studio’s marketing likely to replay odd public stunts and micro spots that mixes companionship and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s pictures are treated as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a second beat that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a gnarly, in-camera leaning style can feel premium on a efficient spend. Expect a grime-caked summer horror jolt that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, preserving a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is marketing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both loyalists and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus navigate here Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and historical speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform tactics for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles window into copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that fortifies both first-week urgency and subscriber lifts in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with global originals and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival buys, locking in horror entries closer to launch and framing as events launches with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a staged of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 runway with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, refined for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception encourages. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited runs to ignite evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate tips toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is centering character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is assuring enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel alive this content when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, builds a path for marketing to thread films through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

How the look and feel evolve

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the palette of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean Young & Cursed run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring prepare summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a opaque tease strategy and limited previews that favor idea over plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner mutates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss work to survive on a far-flung island as the pecking order reverses and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that channels the fear through a young child’s shifting point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that targets in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family lashed to residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound field, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is name recognition where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.